Immigration Status

The Canadian Human Rights Act requires people to be “lawfully present” in Canada in order to be protected by the Act. The Canadian Human Rights Commission interprets this to mean that a person must have immigration status in Canada for a human rights complaint to be accepted. This means that prisoners who are serving lawful sentences in Canada under Warrants of Committal, and who may have been lawfully extradited to Canada to serve their sentences, are not protected by the Canadian Human Rights Act.

WCPJS is challenging this interpretation of the law at the Federal Court of Appeal in Tan v. Canada.